Leah Dewhurst’s Weblog

As ECI 831 comes to an end I would like to take this time to reflect upon my own personal journey through this class. 

Learning is definately a life long-long journey, it never ends.  I thought I was up to date with the latest technology, but when Alec first posted the top 100 Web 2.0 tools, I knew about 15.  Now when I go back to that website, I still don’t know all but I know and I am aware of double of what I new before.

This course has given my the opportunity to present not just powerpoints to my class but to have my own students start to experiment with the new technologies.  The simple tool voicethread, was a great start with my grade 2 students.  It is a very useful tool that can be used in so many different ways.  My students now get to express themselves and share their work to a whole new audience. 

The networks that I have made, I think has been the biggest impact on my teaching and where I want to go.  Now I don’t have to learn something new on my own. I have built a network that is willing to help and share their conversations.  We are here to meet the needs of our students and we all want to make a positive impact on them, so why not embrace these new technologies together.  Today, for the first time I connected with a school in Moose Jaw, using yackpack.  Again, another very simple tool that will definately  have its benefits further along in my journey. 

I believe Alec mentioned that our learning is affecting others by what we are doing.  I think it has shown to others the possibilities that are out there.  I know when I first started my classroom blog, I had some hestitant parents, but now I have seen some of them actually create their own blogs

In the end, even though this course may be over per say, I hope the networks and the conversations continue. I thank everyone who helped make this class a wonderful experience!!!!!

Now that school is back in session, I was able to tie up some loose ends.

My kids and I just finished our Dinosaur unit.  We concluded with a voicethread project where the students shared one thing they learned. 

 http://voicethread.com/share/71911/

We also finished our biography reports. Each student chose a person to write about. Here are a couple examples:

http://voicethread.com/share/94337/

We also added voki to our classroom blog. Check out our classroom blog to see it

 During the month of March we participated in a collaborative project from JenuineTech. We graphed Lucky Charms to see which marshmallow had the most. 

Our hypothesis of there being more CLOVERS was proven INCORRECT.
There were more Shooting Stars than any other shape.

We have also now joined the collaborative project called Voices of the World. We can’t wait to find out what we will be doing in April.  The only clue we were given was something about colours.

The university students have done a great job adding comments to my students. Most have them has also decided to stay on until the end of the school year

One of my students created her own voki about Earth Hour.  You can check her voki at: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162331&blog_id=574826&position2=7

I recently came across this article in the online ED week magazine.  The Kansas Education Employment  board used Second Life to conduct a virtual career fair.  About nine people particiapted in this fair. They have yet to say how successful it was, but left this video on how they conducted it.  Will this be our future?

Chris Lehman, a principal at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia presented to our EC&I 831 course last night.  He was a very insightful and optimistic person who tries to inspire others about the use of technology in the classroom. 

 His school is a great model to others by showing how technology allows us to think differently and these new tools can have a bigger impact on student learning.  SLA has a a strong mission:

“How do we learn?“
“What can we create?“
“What does it mean to lead?“

and what makes them successful is that they stick to it. I liked how the involvement with parents is a crucial part by providing them with the broadcasting of daily announcements, workshops and training.  Throughout out the EC&I 831 course, we have heard many times before that education  to parents, teachers and students about the Internet and the use of open source tools is key.

It feels as though I have am out of the loop.  Last week I had missed both EC& I classes due to PTC’s and of course my laptop decided it had enough.  So I have been waiting patiently for parts to arrive from Dell, and after a new fan, motherboard and hard drive I think I am all set to go.  I have lost a lot of documents, but I have also learned a valuable lesson of backing up my stuff.   Through this process I feel as though I have learned a whole new aspect to technology (how to fix broken computers)… mind you… I think I will have to give a lot of the credit to Dell support!!!

So now I am back in the game.  I was glad to see over the weekend about 7 of my students started blogging from home.  I also had some great comments from PTC’s, parents found it a great way to keep on top of what their child are learning and to share with other family members.

Due to PTC’s I was unable to attend Tuesday’s session with Darcy Norman and Brian Lamb.   As I was listening to the recording the saying ”you learn something new each day” held true once again.  I have heard the word folksonomy many times in this course and it has finally made some sense now.  The simple definition: how people sort things out makes a whole lot of sense now.  I found this great picture that sums up folksonomy, courtesy of Flikr.

Another topic that interested me was about choice fatigue ( I think that’s the perfect word for it)  I always find myself with that problem.  It is hard to leave a tool for something else.  However I think this course has open me up  to the many different tools available through the web.  The blog “50 Ways to Tell A Story” showing the different tools that could be used, is a great example of what can be done.  Not necessarily so we need to do all 50 ways, but it gives us choices. All the new tools are not for everyone. What is good and what works for me, doesn’t necessarily work for the next person.  There are an abundance of tools , and again we as educators need to “play” around with them to suit our needs and the needs of our class. 

Today in the news a 41 year old man was charged with abduction, when police found him with a 14 year old girl. They had met on a chat site on the internet. The girl was voluntarily running away with this man.

The key to this situation: parental education and involvement. The RCMP had noted that parents need to be educated about the internet and need to be aware of what their children are doing. If you need to know whats available or what kids are into these days,  ask teenagers whats on the internet, they will gladly tell. Every generation seems to know more and more about the different tools on the web. Cindy has created a great parental wiki for our final project with information for parents. Even though, we have seen less or have heard less of these certain types of cases, the need is still there to educate the children about internet safety.

This situation reminded me of the parental concerns that I had when I set up my classroom blog. One of the comments was, “I teach my children not to talk to strangers and now you (the teacher)  says it’s ok.”  This conversation was in regards to blogging with U of R students.  I responded by saying this type of blogging is very controlled.  I have personally gone to meet with the students and they all have had criminal record checks.  The purpose of the U of R students blogging with my students was to help with their writing and to give them an audience.  I have also educated my students about talking to others, that we don’t give out any personal information, etc.  I can definitely see where parents are coming from and the key to address some of these issues is through education.

What a great success!!!!

My grade two students participated in the first ever virtual field trip in Saskatchewan through the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta.  The students got to ask a Science Educator their most pondering questions about dinosaurs such as: How tough was the toughest dinosaur?  What did the climate and land look like in the cretaceous period? How do fossils form and how do we know where to look? The responses were given to the students through movie clips, images and they got to view real fossils through a desktop camera.  It was a truly amazing experience as the interaction that took place between the museum and students was unforgettable. 

I truly recommend this experience for any classroom. I think my school division has ironed out all the tech problems (which took about three weeks) to set it up for anyone in this province (but don’t quote me on that )

I can’t seem to embed the video here, so here is the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNEaTxH870U

This was the first full week I had the my classroom blog up and running.  What an incredible experience it has been for my students and I.  Each of my students each have their own blogging buddy which has encouraged them to become better writers.  The students  were also excited to have received random comments from grade 2 students from Bengough, Saskatchewan. 

My students were eager to write back to them. Now I find myself trying to find some more time to give them a chance to not only communicate with their blogging buddies but to make general comments to others. 

This classroom blog has also sparked an interest in geography.  With clustermapsattached to my blog, my students are so excited to see when a new “dot” has appeared. We are learning about all the different countries in this world. So far we have had visitors from Australia, Italy, Thailand, Europe, United States and Canada. What a great way to teach a quick simple geography lesson.

Can’t wait to see what next week will bring

Clarence Fischer spoke a very powerful presentation last Tuesday.  His words definately hit home with me when he was encouraging his students to become responsible global citizens.  The social networking is now allowing our students to authenically experience life on other parts of the world.  They not only get to see and hear how others live their life but to collaborate and learn from one of another.  What a great experience this is for our students to get a real authentic experience, something they can’t get out of a text book.  I know my students are enjoying being penpals with students from Thailand. They have learned so much about them, and they will now learn so much more now that we are blogging with them. 

It was also amazing to see the powerful connections Clarence’s students made in regards to the Nata Village Blog.  What more can we give to a student than a real authentic experience, something that they can have their own voice and truly make a difference.  

                          “The more of us together; the more powerful we can be!”